Utility vehicles such as golf carts are commonly used to transport cargo and passengers in off-road conditions. Such vehicles conventionally include a driver seat, a front-passenger seat, and a cargo area behind the seats. Some vehicles provide additional seats behind the front seats that can be folded down to reveal the cargo area. It is also known to provide a hinged tailgate for a utility vehicle that can be opened to provide access to the cargo area.
Traditionally, convertible cargo bed assemblies require disassembly, modification, or the use of tools to convert between cargo bed functionalities. Maneuvering between configurations in known convertible cargo beds often requires at least two people and involves the removal or addition of detachable components. As such, the conversion process for conventional convertible cargo beds is time-consuming and cumbersome. None of the known utility vehicles satisfactorily provide a cargo bed with passenger-seating, cargo-storage, cargo-loading, and dumping functional configurations that can be converted quickly and easily by a single operator.
Additionally, in conventional convertible cargo bed designs wherein an additional passenger seat is provided, the additional seating surface doubles as a cargo-facing surface when the bed is carrying cargo. In these known designs, contamination of cargo-facing surfaces makes it difficult to utilize the bed's passenger-carrying function after hauling or storing cargo without first cleaning the bed's surfaces. None of the previously known convertible seat assemblies satisfactorily provide a cushioned seat and a seat back surface that do not also serve as interior surfaces of the cargo-bed when carrying cargo.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a utility vehicle with a cargo bed assembly that is easily convertible between additional passenger-seating, cargo-storage, cargo-loading, and dumping configurations. It would also be desirable to provide an additional passenger seat and seat back for a convertible cargo bed wherein the seat and seat back surfaces do not also function as cargo-facing surfaces when the cargo bed is hauling cargo.